`Our Gang` Creator Hal Roach Dies At 100

November 3, 1992|Los Angeles Times

HOLLYWOOD -- Movie producer Hal Roach, who teamed Laurel with Hardy and turned a talented yet unaffected group of child actors into ``Our Gang`` during a career that spanned silent one-reelers and television situation comedies, died on Monday at his home in Los Angeles.

His 100th birthday in January, celebrated at the Motion Picture and Television Home, produced a final outpouring of sentiment and public attention to the film industry`s oldest pioneer.

He had been in relatively good health despite his age, said Richard Bann, his biographer. ``Through most of his 90s, he drove a car, he smoked, he drank, he dated, he went hunting. He did everything that any man can do -- and with a vengeance,`` said Bann, co-author of The Little Rascals: the Life and Times of Our Gang. Roach developed pneumonia about a week ago, Bann said.

Working his way up from a $5-a-day cowboy extra to millionaire head of his own studio, Roach was renowned as the producer of some of Hollywood`s finest short comedies.

But it was Roach`s creation of ``Our Gang`` and the teaming of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy that gave the small studio its biggest successes.

Those joinings also earned Roach two Academy Awards for best short subjects: Laurel and Hardy`s The Music Box in 1932; and Our Gang`s Boredof Education in 1936.

Roach`s first wife, actress Margaret Nichols, died in 1940; their daughter, Margaret, died in 1964, and their son, Hal Roach Jr., died in 1972.

Roach`s second wife, Lucille, died in 1981. They had four daughters, one of whom, Elizabeth, died in 1946. His surviving daughters are Maria Watkins, Jeanne Roach and Bridget Anderson. He had eight grandchildren.

MOVIE MAN

-- Hal Roach won two Oscars, for Laurel and Hardy film The Music Box in 1932 and for ``Our Gang`` film Bored of Education in 1936.

-- Directed 1940 special effects film One Million B.C.; Produced Of Mice and Men.

-- Produced long-running TV series The Life of Riley and The Amos and Andy Show.